Date and Time
Location
112 Buckhout Laboratory
White mold of soybean, caused by the fungal pathogen Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Barry, is the 2nd most destructive disease of soybeans globally, and accounts for 4% yield loss in North America. Since 1996, there has been documented economic losses in soybean in Pennsylvania in all but three years. However, white mold epidemics are not homogenous across the state and the risk of white mold is hard to predict due to microclimatic conditions and variable frequency of infection in fields, regardless of having a history of white mold or not. In this talk, I will be describing how I plan on revealing the prevalence of this pathogen across Pennsylvania, the genetic diversity between isolates in various regions, and assessing efficacy and feasibility of current strategies used by growers. With these insights, best practices for white mold disease management can be catered and implemented for individual farms.